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UH OH! Are we prego? ---AHEM, YES!!!!

Holy bejeezus, it just dawned on me today that my "fat mare" might actually be pregnant instead. All summer I've been getting annoyed that her grazing muzzle hasn't been working. I got her one in May because she was starting to look a little thick, and she has just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. I thought it was just a crafty mare and a defective grazing muzzle, but this morning we noticed SHE'S BAGGING UP! She has a swollen vulva (compared to normal anyway) and her udder is super swollen (again, compared to normal), plus she is producing a thick, clear liquid when you pinch her teats, which I can only guess might be colostrum. Also, her belly no longer looks like a grass belly, it looks "dropped" to me.

I really had to think back, but I realized today that there WAS a brief period where she could have been exposed to a stallion. Where I was boarding a year ago, the woman owned a stud, but she had previously had him separated and he had always stayed well contained. However, last October she rearranged her pastures, and somehow both of my horses ended up in the middle pasture with only 4 strands of hot wire tape fencing separating my hoebag hooker mare from the stud. I recall distinctly getting a booty-chewing from the BM about my mare "teasing" her stud across the fence and that he was trying to tear the fence down, hence why she was stuffed into the dinky broodmare paddock on the other side of the place getting beat up by moody mommies when I arrived on that particular afternoon. I'd almost put money on it that he actually made it over the fence and they just didn't tell me about it. I moved both of my furkids shortly after that during the first week of November.

Now I feel like a bad mom because I haven't noticed till now AND I've been restricting her diet trying to make her lose weight! I just completely forgot about that stud being on property because with the previous fencing at that barn, she was always separated by several paddocks from him and he never used to get out! I called the vet and have scheduled an appointment for an ultrasound on Friday. I already had an appointment to bring my new donkey straight there for a coggins after picking her up this Friday, so I just tacked on the ultrasound for my mare. What do you guys think? Is there any slim possibility that she's faking given the photos?

Pretty hard to tell from pictures. I have a mare here that is not pregnant and has a HUGE belly from previous foals and you would swear would foal anyday. Same goes for the udder, if they have had previous foals sometimes they still maintain a bit of an udder. Is she a maiden mare?

She's never been pregnant before! Never been this fat before, never had a bagged udder before, never had a swollen vulva like that. Just turned 9 on July 2nd. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Friday when we go in for an ultrasound, but I'm not really that optimistic at this point I can probably go out and take more photos in a bit. She looks big as a house compared to how she was just 4 weeks ago. The last time I rode her was just over 4 weeks ago, right before I broke my ribs. Because I broke my ribs on July 17th, I haven't done much more than just feed them daily since because I can't ride. Aside from a little brushing here and there, they haven't been messed with because they go out and roll in the pond after I get through cleaning them, so there hasn't been much point. I hadn't noticed her bagging before now because I hadn't expected the possibility till it dawned on me that there was a very narrow window of possibility last October.

When life throws you lemons, put on your best Asian accent and scream "Faaack yuuuu Rehmooohns!" (says yours truly, the half-Japanese kid )

Oh yeah, and when I thought about it, she hasn't shown signs of being in season at all this year. Not this spring, not this summer, and she usually at least shows signs of it all down the back of her legs when she is in season. She gets drippy, and we've had no drippy this year.

When life throws you lemons, put on your best Asian accent and scream "Faaack yuuuu Rehmooohns!" (says yours truly, the half-Japanese kid )

My fiance ended up taking me to dinner, and she wouldn't come to the gate in the dark after we got home when I called since she'd already had dinner. I'm going to take more photos when she gets her morning meal, and I'm going to call to see if I can maybe pick up my donkey earlier, like Thursday, and then move both her and my mare's vet appointment up to Thursday afternoon so I can figure out our next move. I've gone ahead and started beefing up her meals now, and she did get her shots done on 7/10 so I'll ask for a recommendation as to whether they think she needs an extra booster or not plus ask the vet what they'd recommend as prego safe dewormer that would be best for attacking the active bugs in our area right now. We had plans to deworm the whole herd this Friday when my new donkey arrived, but now I need to buy a different wormer because I can't find any data saying that Quest Plus is safe for prego mares, and I'm not taking any chances.

Jeez, this is not what I expected this week! I hope she's not due for another month... I really need a little more time to read up and prepare! This would be her first foal and my first foal, too... the last time I watched anything give birth was a goat, and I'm a little nervous that not only does she look prego, she looks like she'll be due soon! Makes me feel like a real amateur, but then again I really am one when it comes to breeding/foaling. I did NOT plan on breeding this mare, and really wanted to carefully select her first breeding, not end up with some random baby from a stallion I never would have chosen. If she is pregnant, the sire is a Friesian sporthorse stallion, which ordinarily would perk up ears, except that he was a Friesian/appaloosa cross, hasn't done a darn thing, wasn't even broke the last time I saw him, and it's now questionable as to whether he's even registered because I'm hearing two different stories. Not to mention that the person who owns him is not a person I really look forward to getting in touch with. What a mess!

When life throws you lemons, put on your best Asian accent and scream "Faaack yuuuu Rehmooohns!" (says yours truly, the half-Japanese kid )

I once had to have her vet checked because of being out with a stud colt (should have made the BO/SO pay for it... but she's a friend) which eased my mind a great deal because I just couldn't get the weight off her. She did look like she was bagging up a bit, but it was just more FAT.

My girl is an INCREDIBLY easy keeper, mare gets fat just looking at hay, I just purchased a muzzle for her to try and get her weight down again now.

No, she's not fat. I'm ashamed to admit it, but it took having my friend Kim notice swollen lady parts for me to stand back and really take a look.

She has been fat before... back in 2007 when I was still in college, I was keeping her at a friend's farm because they asked for a pasture mate for their mare. It was just Classy Lady, the other horse, and 3 mini cows on 24+ acres of land, and she got extremely obese on just lush grass. Gorgeous, lush, weed free, well taken care of grass. I had a vet come out and check her then, and she just jiggled with blubber then, and was all cresty and fat. He confirmed she was just fat then, and that I needed to move her.

Right now, she is all belly. Not fat at all in her topline. Hasn't been ridden for the last month because of my broken ribs, and was ridden very intermittently, maybe between once a week and once every two weeks before that. I thought that she just had a huge grass belly and that the rest of her was just losing muscle tone due to not being worked, but the fact that she has continued to gain steadily despite having a grazing muzzle and not getting worked is a pretty good indicator that it's not just obesity I think, and wow I feel like an idiot. I remember how fatty her neck was, and how fatty she was all over, so how stupid am I to remember that now and not have automatically recognized the difference? I've been mentally kicking myself all day long because my obliviousness has cost my poor mare. She's certainly not emaciated, she's not even all that thin, but she should have better fat stores if she's about to foal.

Now I'm going to be making a mad dash to get ready in time because I'm 99% sure they'll tell me she's prego, which means switching her feed which I'm already doing, improving my small paddock and double checking that I don't have fescue (I don't think I do, but I'm going to have a lawn expert verify that for me tomorrow if I can get someone out), and all sorts of other little things that I'm figuring out about mare and foal care as I scour the internet. Wish me luck!

When life throws you lemons, put on your best Asian accent and scream "Faaack yuuuu Rehmooohns!" (says yours truly, the half-Japanese kid )

Last I checked, he's not even broke to ride, much less doing anything noteworthy. I found the site after searching tonight and discovered that she's asking a ridiculously high stud fee for him even though he's doing nothing, all based on parentage, but I heard from a mutual contact who knew the stud's original owners that he may not even be registered? They're claiming registry with multiple registries, but I KNOW these people and know how they're pathological liars, so there's no telling?

Frankly, I'm really considering a lawsuit for negligence to cover veterinary costs because I was boarding with said stud owner at the time, and my mare was NOT to be covered. He was supposedly securely contained, but apparently not, eh? I really don't know all the intricacies of what that would entail, though, so I'm just going to get her checked first and then go from there. I hate the idea of legal action, BUT an unexpected foal and scrambling to get my place properly set up for said foal is going to be an expense that I feel should never have been necessary. Thank goodness I now am living on my own farm and am not having to negotiate new care arrangements with a boarding manager.

I really don't know if this foal could be registered? I think that might require a court order for a DNA test since I doubt the stud's owner would be that cooperative to just hand over what I need. We're not on the best of terms because I left her farm after she starved my OTTB despite my complaints as to his continuing weight loss. At any rate, parentage would have to be proven first to register with any Friesian sporthorse registries, and what can you really even do with a TWH x Friesian/Appaloosa cross? What a strange mix.

Last edited by ClassynIvansMom; Aug. 17, 2011 at 01:19 PM.
Reason: Edited to remove link to sire's website per covering my butt for being too identifying.

When life throws you lemons, put on your best Asian accent and scream "Faaack yuuuu Rehmooohns!" (says yours truly, the half-Japanese kid )

Where have you been??? The Frewalkaloosa is a well-established breed. It's not quite as versatile as the Magickal Gypsy Vanner, but it does belch butterflies. Just hope you get the Freisian forelock rather than the Appy forelock or the horse will spook at the belched butterflies.

Where have you been??? The Frewalkaloosa is a well-established breed. It's not quite as versatile as the Magickal Gypsy Vanner, but it does belch butterflies. Just hope you get the Freisian forelock rather than the Appy forelock or the horse will spook at the belched butterflies.

LOL, where's the FB like button when I need one?

When life throws you lemons, put on your best Asian accent and scream "Faaack yuuuu Rehmooohns!" (says yours truly, the half-Japanese kid )

I have to be able to prove Friesian bloodline through papers, though, don't I? Or will they take it with a DNA test? There's absolutely no way I can register it with the TWH registry or the Spotted Saddle registry. I'm almost positive that the latter one does require both parents to be registered now, though I'm not 100% sure. I've never had to consider registering any baby of anything before. Haha, my mare and I are going to be total noobs at this... Hopefully being a good mama will come naturally to my mare to make up for my inexperience! I can't sleep just thinking about my poor girl and what all I'm going to have to do. My fiance and I are going to start working on the small paddock tomorrow I think. Thankfully he'll have all of the rest of this week to help me with stuff before grad school starts up again.

Can they tell how far along the pregnancy is with an ultrasound like with a human baby? Can it tell me when she should be due? I am almost positive it happened in October of last year, but not sure when in October. That's the only time she didn't have two fencelines between the two of them, and I clearly remember getting griped at during that month because they had just redone the fencelines and my mare was "inciting" him to mess with the fence afterwards. It's so long ago, though, that I don't remember if that happened earlier or later in October.

When life throws you lemons, put on your best Asian accent and scream "Faaack yuuuu Rehmooohns!" (says yours truly, the half-Japanese kid )

Well, if you mare conceived in October, she is due in Sept, give or take. A mare's pregnant for a rough average of 340 days, although there is a lot of variation in that number.

So I would pick Oct. 15th as the date she was bred, which would make her due the last week in Sept....around the 20th. But there could easily be a "spread" of 20+ days either way.

So I doubt the mare is going to foal today or next week if all is well. I'm betting you have another 10-30 days if she IS in foal.

She might be preggo and a breeding could have most definitely happened....I've heard of plenty of breedings "through the fence".

But if the only possible time of exposure was then, at least you can get the dates down fairly close...for a horse.

Tell you vet you feel the time of exposure was "about" Oct. 15th, give or take 10 days either way. If she is preggo, get vaccines NOW for whatever your vet recommends. Important of baby's health.

There are lots of good breeders on this forum, so you'll get tons of advice.

For a registry like that, I wouldn't worry about needing DNA; it's not likely. If nothing else, you can register the foal with the PHR. That will verify pedigree if you want to sell the foal.

They certainly aren't asking big money for the foals (2011 foals are priced at $1000), so don't let them buffalo you into paying anything. I don't see that you'd really have any contact with the stallion owners if you don't want to.

Although I have to say that stallion doesn't look bad at all (and I love spots ) this isn't "Big Time" breedings or even a recognized breed to me. The foal will be a heavy horse, so be ready for that.

But maybe not a bad using horse and maybe an interesting color....alot of people are drawn to that. Might be a cute foal and besides...it's done now....

Personally, if the mare is pregnant, I would just register the foal with PHR or one of those "registries" they mention. Start the research now...I'm willing to bet one of those doesn't require more than $$ and some paperwork.

If the stallion owner gives you any crap, threaten to sue her in small claims for all the costs of a pregnancy + vet bills, etc. If I were the stallion owner I think I would offer you registration in "my" registry for a reduced stud fee and if you didn't want that, you could register the foal where you wanted without paying me a dime.....but people aren't always reasonable.

It was pretty bad management to put a stallion sharing such a flimsy fence line with a breedable mare....

well if the SO was mad at you for your mare getting her stallion riled up when she put them next to each other that isn't saying much for her stallion management! If the stallion got over or through such a flimsy fence set up then it does not sound like the SO is the sort that is exactly going to admit to that either. If she is baggin up....odds are darn good she is preggo. All mares are different but...I have generally had mares foal on average about 2 weeks after they start bagging up. That would put you at early September on a potential October cover...so timeline would fit...especially since foals born late in the season tend to come earlier (under 340 days). Do not use Quest on a preggo mare...stick with good old ivermectin. At this point...you can up her feed a bit but changing her feed probably isn't gong to make much difference this late in the game. She will need more grain in the early nursing stages though. I had an oops Pintoloosa foal this spring...my Paint stallion jumped his gate and then proceeded to jump the hubbys Appy polo mare last spring.http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...t=1ab388eb.jpg